These cupcakes are so rock-your-socks delish that I cannot see me making a traditional chocolate cupcake ever again.

Yes, you read that right.

Yes, I put these on a pedestal –one by Sarah’s Stands http://sarahsstands.com/

The Search for the Best Chocolate Cupcake

For years, I have been looking for the perfect chocolate cupcake recipe and though I have found some great cakes along the way, none even comes close to this one. That’s because I am SUPER and I mean, SUPER picky about chocolate cupcakes. It can’t just be chocolate and sweet. And frosting — I hate traditional buttercream– too sweet and heavy for my tastes and it overwhelms the kind of cake I prefer.

When it comes to chocolate cake, I need depth of flavor in my chocolate– midnight black, preferably. I want to taste the night sky that the cacao pods grew under in each dark mouthful. But that density cannot come at the expense of the cake’s crumb or moisture. I would rather not have cake than eat a dry piece, trying to choke it down with lots of milk. I have ditched many a cupcake over this issue.

My Chocolate Cupcake Criteria:

Moist, but durable enough to frost and carry without a crumby trail following you

The frosting must be rich in flavor and mouth-feel without being greasy, heavy or over-sugared

I told you I had high standards. 😉

Which is why, when I tell you this is IT — you’d better believe me.

Grab your notebook and jot this recipe down or turn on your printer and print it out. . . NOW!

I’ll wait. I am not joking. I wouldn’t joke about a thing like this. I take it —much– too– serious.

Cocoa, quinoa and sugar– the new cupcake trinity

A Happy Accident

I fell into this recipe, sort of by blissful accident. As you may know, me, and the 12 other VP bloggers, are spending the month using Bob’s Red Mill and California Olive Ranch products in recipes for the Tasty and Healthy New Year Challenge. At the same time, most of us have also pledged to Build a Better Me (our own year-long effort to get healthier in 2012) — for my part, I decided to go gluten-free for a while. (Which was fine,because my recipes containing flour for BRM/COR promo had been completed in December, before I went gluten-free.)

Except . . . in a twist of fate, 30AEats blogger, Susan, found herself out of town (and away from her BRM products) when she needed to post last week. She ran out to procure her ingredients for last week’s challenge, except she couldn’t find the Grande Grains that were scheduled. Being resourceful, Susan opted for this week’s grain, Quinoa (read all about her adventures here) and as luck would have it, unbeknowst to Susan, decided to make the same dish, I was going to share with you this week — Quinoa Tabouleh.

I had to start from scratch, again. I wanted to do something out of the box, something that maybe none of my other blogger friends would be doing. I thought– dessert! But the obvious choice (a grain pudding) I just did last week.

Quinoa batter before dry ingredients

Meanwhile, being gluten-free for going on three weeks was beginning to take its toll– I craved cake, cookies, bread and pasta. I knew there were gluten-free cakes made with quinoa flour and thought maybe I could make the flour myself from the dry quinoa.

I began to search for gluten-free recipes online, typing in “gluten-free cakes” and “quinoa flour cakes.” There were a lot of ingredients in these recipes and a variety of match-ups of different kinds of gluten-free flours — I couldn’t decide.

But then, I accidentally forgot to type in “flour” on my next search. I just typed “quinoa cake,” and found myself staring face to face with, what looked in pictures, to be the richest, moistest, chocolatey-ist cake I’d ever seen.

I read the post on babble.com, it said it was delicious. But, you never really know about these things. I read the comments, people were extolling the virtues of this cake– still, I wasn’t sure. There wasn’t a morsel of flour in this recipe. Just whole grain, fully-cooked quinoa and the other usual suspects– cocoa, eggs, butter, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and vanilla. Really? REALLY??

Now, I’ve been a fan of quinoa for years but as a replacement for rice or cous cous — never in baking. I was intrigued. Would it work as cupcakes? Or would they dry out too much? Would it be chalky, gritty or flavorless. Would there be a lingering bitter bite?

What the heck, I thought, I decided to dive in.

After the dry ingredients

I admit, I tweaked the recipe, just a smidge along the way, substituting some of the butter for California Olive Ranch’s Everyday Fresh Olive Oil to bring a few extra flavor notes and some heart healthy goodness to the recipe. I also whipped up a frosting (after tasting how great the cake was) that would complement the cake, but not overwhelm it.

The results were amazing! Thank goodness (like Bob Ross used to say) for happy little accidents.

If Susan had not forgotten her grains, if we had not decided to make the same dish — I may NEVER have found the world’s most perfect chocolate cupcake, which means, I woudn’t be passing it along to you. (Thank you Susan!)

Into the oven

I KNOW you want to kill me now — “Where’s the damn recipe!!” you’re shouting.

OK, OK pipe down — here it is.

But when you taste this and you inevitably swoon with delight, remember who brought it to you and think of me kindly from time to time –the girl with the perfect cupcake.

Best Chocolate Cupcakes Ever w/Honey-Cocoa Cream Cheese Frosting

The frosting is entirely my own creation and something I just whipped up out of thin air, tasting as I went until the desired consistency and flavor was reached. It is very much like a fluffy, light, chocolate mousse — rich, chocolatey with a touch of honey-kissed sweetness. It glides on smoothly and floating on top of the moist, light but deeply flavored chocolate cakes.

Cupcake Batter

2/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill Organic Quinoa

1 1/3 cup water

1/3 cup soymilk (you can use dairy or sub other milks if you like)

4 large organic brown eggs

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup California Olive Ranch Everyday Fresh Olive Oil

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Rinse and prepare the quinoa according to directions using the water measurements above. Once the quinoa is done, turn off the heat and leave the covered saucepan on the burner for another 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and allow the quinoa to cool. (Do not rush this.)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of the cups of two 1 dozen non-stick cupcake pans (no flour) or use cupcake wrappers.

Combine the milk, eggs and vanilla in a blender or food processor. Add 2 cups of cooled, cooked quinoa and blend until smooth. Add the oil and melted butter and blend to incorporate.

In the meantime, mix together the sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in your mixer bowl. Add the contents of the blender and mix well. scoop the batter with an ice cream scoop into the cupcake pans and bake for 16 to 20 minutes or until the cake bounces back when lightly pressed.

Remove from the oven and cool completely in the pan before serving. Frost if desired (these are delicious without frosting as well.)

Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month.

Makes 24 cupcakes

Frosting

4oz cream room temp cheese

1/2 cup room temp butter

1/4 cup honey

1tsp pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup cocoa

1/2 to 3/4 cup powdered sugar (depending on desired consistency)

1tBsp almond milk

Cream butter and cream cheese together in a mixing bowl, slowly adding your honey as you continue to mix. Then add carefully add the cocoa and powdered sugar, bit by bit, alternating between the two. Add vanilla and almond milk until desired consistency is achieved. I like mine light, fluffy and mousse-like. If you like yours a bit more stiff add more powdered sugar or cocoa to firm it up a bit.

A Tasty and Healthy New Year Challenge Giveaway

Each week, the VP bloggers will challenge you to find (and use) the secret code word of the week, posted in the contest tab labeled “Virtual Potluck” on the California Olive Ranch Facebook page.

Each blogger will pick a single winner per week to receive a pack of the featured products from Bob’s Red Mill and California Olive Ranch.

That’s right- four weeks, 12 winners each week! That’s like 48 chances to win! The more blogs you visit the more chances you have to win~ so what are you waiting for?! Let’s get cooking (and eating!) A Tasty and Healthy New Year!

Love that these are gluten free because we recently found out my 8 yo is allergic to wheat. I also love that there are no artificial flavors or colors. I’m thinking using the Arbosana olive oil might give it a totally different flavor but maybe the sweet taste would cover so you couldn’t even tell…

Wow, these look amazing! I would say your use of quinoa is an excellent idea. The cupcakes look so moist, light and fluffy. I am a huge fan of dark chocolate and love the sweet taste of honey in and on just about everything. When I make these I may have to add a bit of peanut butter to the frosting. Great job! Even though you didn’t use the Arbosana.

OK, I might have to try these, even though I have no particular motivation to de-glutenize myself. But I will have to make them so I can compare them to the Best Chocolate Cupcakes that I already make from a recipe of my mother’s. Seriously good, seriously chocolaty, seriously moist, yummy without icing (although I tend to hit ’em with my best cream cheese stuff), and even vegan (before icing). And if mine are better than yours, well, I’ll just have to tell you. Maybe yours are the best gluten-free chocolate cupcakes. 🙂

Ha! I was soo happy that I saw a chocolate dessert when I clicked onto your page! 🙂 Awesome! I’ve made quinoa muffins before but not with anything so delicate as a cake! Hats off to you!
And I would love to win the Arbosana olive oil as well (especially after your description of it to Rachel) I’d definitely be the belle of a party when I serve this cupcake! 😉

I made these today and they turned out AWESOME!!! You can’t even tell that its made with quinoa. My boyfriend and I are on a challenge to cut out all processed grains/foods from our diet and boy do I miss pastries and sweets. This is perfect. I didn’t have any of the fresh olive oil you were talking about, but I had a bottle of almond oil, so I used that instead. I also used almond milk instead of soy. Still tastes wonderful.

SO glad you like them! they are my favorite cupcakes EVER! You could use full butter or like you did replace the olive oil with almond or coconut oil — same with the milk replacement. They’re so versatile. Try them with a chocolate glaze topped with shredded coconut — out of this world!

These are amazing! I bought some quinoa a while back to help me eat better – and since most of the recipes I googled looked too healthy, I googled “quinoa chocolate cupcakes” and found this. Just made them and (even though I think I took them out too early and they completely fell apart) they are delicious! Will definitely try to do it again (and better) soon! Thank you!

Amy — so glad you like them. My family is nuts for them — we just finished eating a batch! But they ARE hard not to want to grab out of the pan before they’ve set. Better luck with impulse control next time- lol! Glad you are enjoying them anyway. 😉

These are AMAZING! I just found out my son can’t have gluten. I have been experimenting with gluten free for awhile and these are the best. Now I just need to try making them vegan. Thanks so much for sharing!

Sarah — so glad you like them! I’ve recently perfected a muffin recipe and a vanilla cupcake recipe based off of this recipe. What I like most about them is how moist they stay, they last for up to a week in the fridge and don’t dry out like many gluten free recipes do and no icky aftertaste.

VEGAN CONVERSION: These can be converted to vegan easily by using all coconut oil instead of butter (it even adds a little extra goose of flavor) and by replacing eggs with your favorite choice from this list below. Please note these are exchanges are for replacing 1 egg — for this recipe you would need to do the following 4 times:

*Applesauce (1/4 cup per egg)
*Pureed banana (3 tbsp)
*Flax seeds or chia seeds (my personal favorite and in chocolate cake you can use white or dark chia seeds)
*A combination of vinegar and baking powder (one tbsp each of white vinegar and water plus one tsp baking powder until well blended.)

To all of these solutions (except the vinegar combo) I would suggest increasing the leavening agents just a bit, as these substitutes add moisture but not the additional leavening provided by the eggs. Let me know which egg replacer you choose and how it all works out!

There are no words for me to use right now to express how thankful I am for this recipe. My son has eosiniphilic esophagitis and is allergic to just about EVERYTHING. I made this recipe using hemp milk and ghee instead of butter. We also used the vinegar/water/bp combo instead of eggs. I couldn’t find my cupcake tins so I made two round cakes. The cake cake out great, even though I didn’t bake it long enough. I wound up rolling it into balls (“cake pops” as my son said, sprinkling them with hemp seeds and putting them in cupcake tins. One whole cake wound up going into the freezer for later use.

Anyway, I am filled with gratitude for this recipe. So amazing!!! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, you don’t know how much that means to me. So glad this worked for you — as evidenced by your substitutions, this recipe is very flexible. I have made them with coconut oil as well a variety of milks ranging from oat to hazelnut and coconut milk. I know how tough it can be to find recipes that really satisfy the yearning for the “real thing” even when that “real thing” can be so detrimental to your health (as in the case of your son.) I love the idea of making cake pops or cake balls out of this recipe — good save, Sara! Half of cooking is the creative improvisation that happens in the kitchen.

I’ve made these three times now and have directed about 8 friends and family to this blog for the recipe. Such a fantastic recipe. It is going to be one of those lifelong-staples in my recipe collection. With a coeliac sister and chocoholic tendencies, it ticks every box! Thanks so much! Also, I put another ‘icing’ of sorts on one batch – whipped together creme fraiche (about 200mL), the solid part of coconut milk (from one tin), some maple syrup, vanilla paste and lime zest. Beautiful!

Wow! Thanks Anna! You just made my day. These cupcakes are my favorite in the world — so moist and non-celiacs can never tell the difference — they love ’em. Most of all though, I’ve just been touched by all the people who have commented to say it has given them or their kids a treat that feels like the “real thing,” without all the gluten. I’ve come up with the vanilla cake version and a blueberry muffin recipe based on this approach as well. I’ll be doing a strawberry cake soon and letting you all know how it comes out. For those watching their sugar intake, too, these little babies have only 15 g sugar BUT keep watching because I’m experimenting with some different sweetener choices for our diabetic friends or those who need a low glycemic index diet.

I made these and they were absolutely delicious! I have to say… the first batch i cooked for around 18 min and they sank in the center big time! Still delicious and super moist. The second batch I left in a bit longer…24 min and they didn’t sink in as much and were less moist. What could I have done that would have made them drop? This hasn’t happened to me with regular flour so I’m not sure….

I’m glad you liked them! I’ve never had mine collapse — they’re always moist, light and fluffy (a little shorter than traditional cupcakes since there is zero flour but never collapsed). Since oven temps vary (gas versus electric, old versus new ranges, uneven heating etc.) — it could be that you did nothing wrong and you just need to experiment with cooking times – 24 mins is too long for your oven and 18 is a bit too early — maybe 20 or 22 minutes is your magic number. Other things to watch for is to make sure you let your quinoa cool before mixing it up. Lastly, you could try adding just a 1/4 tsp more of baking powder if you want to take your cakes out sooner than 24 minutes but want more of a rise. That’s why I have the large baking range because when it comes to quinoa, no flour cake baking, it’s best to know how your oven runs or to experiment with cooking times your first time out of the gate. Let me know how it works out for you.

Any thoughts on how to make something similar with out the cocoa powder. My son and I love chocolate, but my husband and chocolate are not friends. I figure that the cocoa powder being a full cup just skipping it would no work.

Sure — you can use any GF flour in place of the chocolate. I do this in my blueberry muffin recipe here on the site and in a vanilla cake version that I have not posted. You can also experiment with textures by using 1/2 nut flour like almond or hazelnut flour and half all-purpose GF blend like the kind King Arthur and Bob’s Red Mill but it’s the quinoa that makes these cupcakes and muffins because it makes them so irresistibly moist. You can then add any flavor you like by adding fruit or extracts. Enjoy!

The recipe DOES call for the use of water when cooking up the quinoa (leftover quinoa works perfectly.) The milk comes in later when the cooked quinoa is mixed with the milk and egg in the blender. Enjoy!

I don’t know what I was thinking. As soon as I hit send, it came to mee. Too early, no coffee yet. Anyways, I made those quinoa cuppies, and ate 3. I’m ashamed to say that, but I think I got it under control for now, but they haven’t been cream cheese iced yet. And I put 1/2 a chocolate truffle in the bottom. I still think they are healthier than the packaged stuff.
Anyways…..it’s all for dummies sure.
(Small crispie piece if bacon crumbled on top of frosting. Oh! My…..

Ha! Katheryn you’re my kinda gal (bacon and chocolate truffles — sounds divine.) Just so you know these puppies are WAY healthier than their boxed counterparts, even the frosted kind w/15 G of sugar is something my diabetic friend would eat (15 g is her cap) here’s how the nutrition breaks down:

I was thinking light cream frosting, just the tiniest dollop, and a well guided sprinkling of low salt maple bacon cook to smitherines. I always thought that was a word.
All things in moderation. I used the smaller silicone pans, so you can have two, and feel like you only had one big one.
Ok, too much.
Chow

just wanted to point out that white eggs don’t equal cage hens just like brown eggs don’t equal organic, it simply depends on the breed of chickens you have, so you can have white organic eggs as well !
great recipe thx:-)

I happen to love brown eggs (it’s true that, nutritionally, they are identical to white eggs — as long as they are either both commercial or both organic.) The brand of organic eggs I buy, I find that the yolks are more orangey than the very pale yellow white ones. (Yolk color has to do with what the chickens were fed. Pale yellow usually means a wheat grain feed, whereas darker yellow and orangey hues means corn, alfalfa or flax.) I mention that the eggs are organic in the recipe (better nutrition in an organic egg) but I mention the egg’s color for my own reference, I tend to like to chart which exact ingredient I used in each recipe, so that I get the exact same results. (If I had thought brown was synonymous with organic, you can bet I would not have written both.) THE GOOD NEWS: Readers can use any egg they like, even commercial, and still come out with a fine tasting product. My preferences on brands, colors and organic or commercial are just that — my preferences. In your kitchen, you’re the boss so you get to decide. That’s the beauty of cooking at home! 😉

Yes! That is the great thing about this recipe, it’s a master recipe which means depending on what you like, you can sub different milks, or oils and even different sweeteners (like 1 for 1 NuNaturals MoreFiber Stevia Baking blend or Coconut Palm Sugar — both great for diabetics, with a lower glycemic index.) To make a white yellow cake base to layer your flavors on — you can take this same recipe and just sub out the cocoa for your favorite GF flour blend and it will turn out delicious as well. I have used both King Arthur Flour’s GF blend and Bob’s Red Mill GF blend in this way (personally, I preferred the King Arthur in the vanilla because BRM uses garbanzo flour in their mix and in the vanilla you can get a slight aftertaste that you just don’t get with the King Arthur blend, though overall, I tend to like BRM’s pre-made GF mixes better than KAF.)

For strawberry or coconut (or any other flavor you may want) get a good quality natural extract (I recommend Flavorganics) and then be sure to layer the flavor with the real deal, so for the strawberry cake, I boiled down some really juicy ripe berries to a syrup (reducing them to 1/4 to 1/2 cup of syrup) and added it to the mix along with the extract and then frosted with a strawberry cream cheese frosting, using some of that same strawberry reduction syrup and pureed beets for a vibrant pink coloring, remembering to reduce the liquid and sugar in the cake recipe a bit. For coconut, I use coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut extract, and top with a coconut butter and shredded coconut frosting. I have adapted this recipe for blueberry muffins and Lemon Chia Seed Teacakes as well. It’s super versatile, moist and really delicious without all the usual GF baggage.

If the problem is overall stability, you could add a bit of xanthan gum but if your only issue is it not rising enough, I would increase the amount of leavening.

You might also try Hemp or coconut milk in place of rice (rice milk just doesn’t have the heft in fat or protein these other two do and I think it might affect the overall texture.) I have used both in adaptations of this recipe and they’ve worked beautifully.

The leaving and egg work in tandem in this recipe to help the cupcakes to rise — still, because we are using a whole grain and not a flour, you’ll never get a cupcake that rises as high as one using traditional wheat flour or even a GF flour blend. You might try increasing the baking powder by 1/4 tsp.

Hi!, my son is 2 years and 3 months old and is on the Autism Spectrum. He loves chocolate cupcakes but has recently been placed on the Gluten/Casein/Soy free diet so I’m on the hunt for GCSF recipes. I came accross your blog and was hoping to find a recipe for chocolate cupcakes using quinoa flour which is what I have at hand. I can´t seem to find any on the web. I just keep finding recipes with cooked quinoa. I have quinoa flour and a 1 cup carab flour….Please help!!!

I don’t have one that uses quinoa flour because I don’t get the results I like with quinoa flour (which is also more expensive than buying whole quinoa grains — at Trader Joe’s for a couple bucks.) You’ll find that using cooked quinoa yields a more moist (deliciously moist and not dry and gritty like GF flour compounds) and requires WAY less fuss (GF flour recipes require lots of complicated weighing, measuring and extra ingredients like Xantham gum). I encourage you to try this recipe — wheat flour eaters LOVE these cupcakes, too! (They can’t tell the difference and find them to be more moist and chocolatey than most regular chocolate cake recipes). Trust me it’s worth the drive out to snag some quinoa and the recipe is surprisingly easy to put together. (Read the comments from all my happy readers!) If you still want to use a GF flour, I can personally recommend these GF baking blogs, whose bloggers are awesome and whose baked goods are consistently REALLY tasty: Nicole at Gluten Free on a Shoestring, Elana over at Elana’s Pantry, Rachel at Recreating Happiness. Lastly, here’s http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/33911/rich+quinoa+chocolate+cake” target=”_blank”>a cake recipe I found today that uses quinoa flour (but I have never tried it– so I cannot vouch for it. Though it appears highly rated on its site) BEST of luck! Please let us know how it all works out.